Entering his seventh season as the Wild’s most influential player, Gaborik is consumed with staying healthy, producing huge offensive numbers and helping Minnesota win a Stanley Cup.

A mission statement easier to read than it has been to complete.

Only Ottawa’s Dany Heatley has scored more frequently the past two seasons than Gaborik, who bagged 26 goals and 57 points in 2006-07 despite missing 34 games with a chronic groin injury.

Gaborik’s fragility illuminated his impact on the Wild, who were stagnant without him in their lineup. The team that set franchise records with 48 victories and 104 points was 33-9-6 when Gaborik played and 19-2-2 when he scored.

“The team feels more confident with everybody in the lineup, no matter what team it is,” he explained. “When I was playing, guys were working hard. I just want to try to go out there and do anything to help. When I came back, I did that. Hopefully, I can do this all year.”

Groin and hip injuries robbed Gaborik of 51 games and frustrated him to no end the past two seasons. Still, his condensed production put him on pace to score 48 and 52 goals, respectively.

Including the 2004-05 lockout and his contract holdout the previous season, Gaborik has not played a full season since 2002-03.

Playing wire to wire is all that remains for Gaborik, 25, to prove he belongs in the same company with Heatley, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and Marian Hossa, next-generation superstars with equal talent but more durability.

“I think that’s fair,” Wild general manager Doug Risebrough said. “The true picture of him persevering for 80 games and being productive in all situations, he’s just got to play the 80 games.”

Pierre McGuire, a former NHL coach and current TSN and NBC hockey analyst, said it is time for Gaborik to elevate his stature.

“When you’re talking about great players like Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, no matter what they did individually, over time, you have to prove you can do it for an entire season,” McGuire said.

“Very few players can do what (Gaborik) does. But it’s longevity, durability. Do they have the determination? Are they willing to pay the price? It’s a huge recognition year for him.”

“When you lose confidence in your body, it’s tough,” said Risebrough, who battled injuries at the end of his 13-year playing career. “It is a little different for a guy who’s fast, who wants to rely on his speed, who enjoys skating fast. It plays on his mind.”

In June, Risebrough, Gaborik and the team’s medical stuff huddled to determine how he should manage his offseason conditioning in Slovakia to avoid another early season breakdown.

Gaborik incorporated the regimen given to him last year by Dr. Joe Horrigan, a deep-tissue massage therapist whose Los Angeles clinic specializes in the treatment and prevention of hockey injuries.

Assistant trainer Mike Vogt spent two weeks with Gaborik in Trencin to prevent deviation and ensure the Wild’s best player came to training camp in top shape. Gaborik’s speed is powerful as ever, and, most important, he does not have nagging doubts about jamming the accelerator.

“I told Marian not to think about his stride, but to simply play the game. His brain knows what to do,” Horrigan said. “The stronger Marian becomes, the better he will tolerate the enormous output of his speed.”

Gaborik must avoid stressing his muscles by skating too much while remaining vigilant about stretching, hydration and recovery.

On the ice, Gaborik will be challenged every game by the opposition’s best defensemen and checking forwards, increasing his impact whether or not he records a point.

Every minute he absorbs against Chris Pronger or Kris Draper is more free time for linemate Pavol Demitra or second-liners Brian Rolston and Pierre-Marc Bouchard to flourish.

Shadowed or not, Gaborik still can render the best shutdown defenders helpless.

“I don’t think there’s anybody more dynamic that I’ve played with,” said winger Mark Parrish, who played his first two seasons in Florida with the Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure.

“I don’t remember (Bure) beating defensemen so easily, just flatfooted with speed. On the bench, we get excited. We can’t wait to see what he does next.”

Even coach Jacques Lemaire, who always has tamped down expectations to keep his star pupil’s head from swelling, is willing to dismiss some of Gaborik’s unnerving habits, which would doom almost every other player on this team.

“If you look at all the little things, you see a lot of things he’s doing that you don’t like. But you know what? Offensively, he’s involved every game,” Lemaire said. “He might not backcheck at times. He might not jump on the ice quick enough. He might stay too long sometimes.

“But one thing you know, he’s going to get some offense.”

Among the Wild there is no doubting Gaborik’s passion to succeed or commitment to the collective goal of winning. And no player can deliver a more honest assessment of No. 10 than Walz, who has watched Gaborik evolve from an insecure 18-year-old rookie to the franchise’s quiet leader.

“I love his work ethic. He’s not like a typical superstar that I’ve come across over my years. That’s why the guys in the dressing room love him,” Walz said.

So many faces have come and gone in the last seven years that Gaborik marvels at how fast time has evaporated and how he is a virtual graybeard next to Bouchard, Mikko Koivu and Brent Burns, fellow first-round picks now coming into their own.

“We’re more experienced. The young guys felt what it’s like in the playoffs. Burnsie had a great second half. Mikko showed he was good up front and able to play defensively,” he said. “(Eric) Belanger is a good centerman. (Sean) Hill is a big guy who can give us toughness that we need.

“We’ve got great goaltending. They challenge each other to compete every night. This team has to play as a team and keep going. We can’t start to think we can outplay anybody and run back and forth giving up chances. We can’t play any different hockey than we have been to be successful.”

Brian Murphy has been on the Pioneer Press sports staff since 2000, migrating from the Detroit Free Press, where he covered police, courts and sports for four years. Murphy was the Minnesota Wild/NHL beat writer from 2002 to 2008 and has covered the Vikings as a reporter and columnist since 2009. Murphy is a Detroit native and Wayne State University graduate.

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